Jason Voorhees
| aliases = Jason Jason X Uber-Jason Jason X (2002) Pissed off goalie Freddy vs. Jason (2003) | franchise = Friday the 13th | image = | notability = | type = | gender = | base of operations = Camp Crystal Lake, New Jersey | known relatives = Pamela Voorhees (mother;deceased); Elias Voorhees (father;unknown); Diana Kimble (half-sister;deceased); Jessica Kimble (niece); Stephanie Kimble (grand-niece) | status = Undead | born = June 13th, 1946 | died = 1984 (1st death) 2003 (2nd death) 2455 (3rd death) | 1st appearance = Friday the 13th (1980) | final appearance = Freddy vs. Jason | actor = Ari Lehman; Warrington Gillette; Steve Daskawisz; Richard Brooker; Ted White; C.J. Graham; Kane Hodder; Timothy Burr Mirkovich; Ken Kirzinger }} Jason Voorhees is a fictional serial killer and one of the most iconic horror film figures of all time. Characterized by his trademark hockey mask and machete, he is the central antagonist of the Friday the 13th film franchise. In one form or another, Jason has appeared in every film in the series, though in the first and fifth installments, he was seen only in flashback and/or dream sequences. Many actors and stunt men have played the role of Jason Voorhees over the years, but none has been as consistent or as recognizable as that of stunt coordinator Kane Hodder who played Voorhees in the 7th-10th installments of the series. In 2009, New Line Cinema revamped the series with Derek Mears playing the part of Jason Voorhees. Voorhees has also appeared in several comic book spinoffs of the Friday franchise, published by companies such as Topps Comics, WildStorm Productions and Avatar Press. He also appeared in a series of young adult Friday the 13th novels published by Black Flame. Jason Voorhees was a demented serial killer who lived in the wilderness surrounding Camp Crystal Lake. Legend has it that Jason drowned in the lake in 1957 but somehow was ressurected, living alone in the woods for many years. After seeing his mother decapitated by a young camp counselor in 1979, Jason took his revenge; a revenge that evolved into a string of mass murderers against anyone who dared to intrude upon his territory. When Jason was killed by young Tommy Jarvis, everyone thought the nightmare was over. A few years later however, a lightning bolt struck Voorhees' corpse, reanimating him as an undead, psychotic killer. More powerful than ever, Jason continued his violent rampage, eventually amassing a body count that numbered in the hundreds. Biography Early years kids.]] Jason Voorhees was born to Pamela and Elias Voorhees on June 13th, 1946. Friday the 13th (1980)Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993) On the day of Jason's birth, his mother had just accepted a position working as a cook for David and Louise Christy at Camp Crystal Lake. In the middle of her first day at work, Pamela went into labor and was taken to the hospital. Her son Jason was born with severe physical deformities, but a mother's love had blinded Pamela who felt that he was "perfect". Friday the 13th: Pamela's Tale #1 In June of 1957, Pam was working at Crystal Lake when she received news about her son. Rushing home, she learned from her nanny Mrs. Cunningham that Jason had been killing and mutilating small kittens. Rather than admonishing the boy's actions however, she instead cradled him, telling him that she would always protect him. She did decide however, that she would have to leave her job in order to keep an eye on Jason. Dave Christy didn't want to see Pamela go, so he invited her to bring Jason to live at the campground so that she could always keep an eye on him. Jason's physical abnormalities made him a target of scorn and derision among his peers. Freddy vs. Jason (2003) One day, Jason came upon two camp counselors named Barry and Claudette who were making love in the middle of the woods. Something about seeing this prompted a violent reaction in Jason and he pounced on Barry and began pounding on his back. Angry, Barry chased Jason back towards the lake. What happened next varies from source to source. Some say that Jason fell off the dock while Barry was chasing him. Friday the 13th: Pamela's Tale #2 Another source suggests that a group of mean-spirited children pushed Jason off the dock. Freddy vs. Jason (2003) Regardless of which source is to be believed, the end result was the same: Jason Voorhees drowned in the middle of Crystal Lake just days after his eleventh birthday. Whether Jason truly "died" in Crystal Lake is also subject to interpretation. His body was never found and the boy was declared legally dead. Through some unexplained method however, Jason survived. He cut himself off completely from all human contact and grew up in the woods surrounding the campground. He built himself a shack deep in the forest made from materials that he had stolen from the campground. Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) The Crystal Lake murders It is generally accepted that Jason Voorhees was present on the night that his mother was beheaded by Alice Hardy, who was defending herself from Mrs. Voorhees on the beach of Crystal Lake. After Alice was taken away by local authorities, Jason claimed his mother's head and built a shrine to her inside of his cabin. He kept the head, as well as his mother's sweater, on a table in the back of the cabin. A row of lit candles was placed around the head. Fueled by an insatiable rage, Jason sought for nothing more than revenge against Alice Hardy. It took him close to two months to track down where the woman had been residing, but he finally went to her home, broke in, and placed his mother's now-rotting head inside of her refrigerator. When Alice discovered the head, Jason appeared behind her and stabbed her through the side of the head with an ice pick. Things remained relatively quiet for Jason for the next five years. However, in the summer of 1984, he noticed that activity had started up again over at Packanack Lodge, which was located on the opposite side of Camp Crystal Lake. He cared little for this disruption and took measures to cleanse the area of all human presence. Jason was prowling about some of the cabins at Packanack when he came upon a man known as "Crazy Ralph" skulking about. Ralph had been leaning against the back of a tree when Jason came up behind him with a length of chain and wrapped it around his throat until it cut so deeply that the man died. The following day, Jason was trotting across a highway that ran adjacent to the campground when he was spotted by a sheriff's deputy named Winslow. Winslow noticed the hooded stranger and pursued him into the woods on foot. He lost sight of Jason early on, but was able to track him back to his cabin. The deputy entered and found the shrine erected to Pamela Voorhees, at which point, Jason came up behind him and drove the claw-end of a hammer into Winslow's skull. Jason laid the corpse down next to the shrine. The next night, Jason returned to Packanack Lodge with the intent of finishing off the rest of the counselors. Fortunately, most of them had gone into town to enjoy one last night at the Casino Bar before the work seasons started, leaving behind a skeleton crew. Jason found one counselor named Scott, who had been trapped in a snare. He sliced his throat open with his machete and left him to bleed to death. A female counselor named Terry came upon Scott's hanging corpse and began screaming. As she turned to ran, Jason appeared before her and killed her. Jason then entered the main lodge, but there were only three people present at the time. His next victim was Mark, who was a wheelchair-bound athlete. Jason hacked him across the face with the machete and Mark's chair rolled down the steps outside. Jason left the machete and picked up a spear. He went upstairs into one of the rooms where two younger counselors named Jeff and Sandra had just finished making love. Jason impaled them both simultaneously. He then took one of the bed sheets and wrapped it around Jeff's neck, propping his body up in the corner. Jason laid down in the blood-soaked bed and waited for his next victim. This was Vickie, who had just come over from her cabin for a romantic rendezvous with Mark. When she entered the room, Jason sprung up from the bed and slashed her across the leg with a knife. Vickie tried to back away, but Jason lunged at her, stabbing her in the abdomen until she was dead. Soon after, the head counselor Paul Holt had returned to Packanack Lodge with his lover and assistant, Ginny Field. Jason cut the power to the lodge and waited in the darkness. When the two came upstairs, Ginny was the first to cry out that there was somebody in the room with them. Using the spear again, Jason lunged, but Paul managed to spin out of the way. The two grappled with one another, but only Jason emerged seemingly victorious. Leaving Paul unconscious on the floor, he then directed his efforts towards pursuing Ginny. Ginny ran out of the lodge and tried to escape in her car. Jason began poking through the convertible top with a pitchfork, forcing Ginny to flee elsewhere. She tried securing herself in Vickie's cabin and hid under the bed. When Jason entered the cabin, Ginny remained silent, but her terror (and the presence of a rat), forced her to urinate herself. After she felt that Jason had left, she came out from under the bed, but Jason was still in the room and attacked her again with the pitchfork. She managed to grab hold of a chainsaw and drove him backward, after which she hit him across the back with a chair. Ginny continued to run while Jason pursued her. She ran across the lake trail and deep into the woods, eventually coming upon his shack. Once she was inside, she realized that this was Jason's personal abode. Ginny found the shrine of Pamela Voorhees as well as the tattered remnants of the sweater that she had been wearing on the night she was killed. Ginny relied upon her knowledge of child psychology in a last ditch effort to save her herself. She pulled her hair back and donned the sweater. When Jason entered the shack, Ginny deliberately stood in front of the table, blocking his view of his mother's head. She began calling out to him in a firm, maternal voice, hoping to convince Jason that she was actually his mother. The trick worked momentarily, until Jason happened to catch a glimpse of his mother's head behind her. Shaking off the delusion, he then lunged at Ginny. Paul Holt burst through the door to the cabin to rescue Ginny. Jason turned towards him and the two began grappling. Once again, Jason gained the upper hand and pinned Paul to the floor. While beating on him, Ginny came up behind Jason with a machete and cleaved it into his shoulder. The pain was immense and severe enough that Jason slumped to the floor unconscious. Jason awakened moments later and lumbered back to Ginny's cabin. He burst through the window and pounced on top of them. What happened next is not entirely clear. It is known that Ginny managed to somehow miraculously survive. The final fate of Paul Holt is unknown. Jason however, was able to escape the scene before police and paramedics arrived.Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) Higgins Haven Death & Rebirth A Telekinetic Showdown Jason's New York Adventure Creighton Duke At some point following the Manhattan incident, Jason Voorhees' body was reformed. He returned to his home territory at Camp Crystal Lake and came upon a bounty hunter named Creighton Duke who was boating on the lake with his girlfriend. Jason attacked them, killing the woman, but Duke managed to survive. Swearing vengeance, Duke learned everything there was to know about Jason Voorhees. What he discovered was beyond belief. Though little information exists as to how Duke gathered his information, he did discover that the "true" Jason Voorhees was not really a man at all, but an indescribable entity that used Jason's body as a sort of flesh suit. The power of this entity resided in Jason's heart. So long as the heart survived, Jason Voorhees would always be reborn. The only way to destroy Jason once and for all was through a mystic dagger which could only be wielded by someone from Jason's direct family bloodline. Through the course of his investigation, Duke learned about Jason's extended family. At some point following Jason's birth, his father, Elias Voorhees, sired a daughter named Diana. Diana grew up in Cunningham County, married a man with the surname of Kimble and had a daughter named Jessica. While in her early twenties, Jessica had a daughter with her ex-boyfriend named Steven Freeman who was named Stephanie. When Duke learned that the FBI had set up a special task force to bring down Voorhees, he decided to secretly follow them. FBI agent Elizabeth Marcus baited Voorhees into a trap outside a house in the woods and the FBI agents opened fire on Voorhees, ultimately blowing him up. Though the agents celebrated the apparent demise of Voorhees, Duke remained unconvinced. He knew that Jason would live again. Jason Voorhees - Body Snatcher Slaughter in Springwood The demonic dream entity Freddy Krueger found himself in a position of weakness when the people from his favored territory in Springwood, Ohio were forced into forgetting who Freddy was, and by extension, no longer feared him. Without fear to prompt their nightmares, Freddy was powerless. He needed to make the people of Springwood know terror once again, so he scoured the bowels of Hell in search of the perfect weapon. He found it in the form of Jason Voorhees. Even in Hell, Jason could dream, and Freddy awakened old desires by implanting images of irresponsible camp counselors inside of Jason's mind. Spurred by a renewed desire to kill, Jason was resurrected. Freddy Krueger guided Jason's actions and turned him in the direction of Springwood. When Jason arrived, he immediately set upon slaughtering random targets. Freddy first steered Jason in the direction of one of his favorite haunts - 1428 Elm Street. Once again armed with his trusty machete, Jason cut the power to the house, broke inside and mercilessly stabbed a boy named Trey Cooper numerous times in the back while he laid in bed. He then took both ends of the bend and folded them together, snapping Trey's spine. Jason then targeted Trey's best friend, Blake Mueller. He first attacked Blake's father, neatly slicing off his head and leaving it resting upon its stump for Blake to find. When Blake awakened from a nightmare, he found his father sitting motionless next to him. The man's head fell off into Blake's lap and Jason appeared behind him. Blake vainly tried to deflect his attack with his father's head, but Jason slashed through him with his machete. With each new death, paranoia spread across Springwood, and thus Freddy's power grew. Jason appeared next at a rave being held that night in a nearby corn field. Using a broken piece of pipe, he impaled a raver named Frisell and a passed out girl named Gibb Smith. This is where things began to turn in the relationship between Freddy and he. Krueger had his eyes set on killing Gibb, and was just ready to finish her off in the dream world when Jason killed her in the real world. Freddy began to realize that his newest pet had gone out of control. Jason the approached two highly intoxicated teens named Shack and an unnamed friend. They were so drunk that they actually began making fun of Jason, calling him Jethro and stating that he should go find "a pig to fuck". Jason responded by taking the friend's head and twisting it around backward. Shack took cups of high grain alcohol and doused Jason with it, then lit him with up with a Tiki torch. Though one might think this would be an effective tactic, all it resulted in was giving Jason a weapon of fire. He took his flaming machete and hurled it at the fleeing Shack, spearing him through the back. Jason collected his blade and then set upon hacking and slashing his way through as many frantic partiers he could get his hands on. A small handful of people however, managed to get away. Unfriended by Freddy For whatever reason, Jason had it in his mind to pursue the group that managed to escape from the corn field. He followed them to the Westin Hills Psychiatric Hospital. He battered down a heavy steel door, which landed on a security guard named Stafford, crushing him. He then made his way to the security command center where he found Deputy Scott Stubbs and a nerdy teen named Charlie Linderman. Jason swung his machete down toward Stubbs, who evaded the initial blow. The weapon lodged itself into a computer control panel, which sent a strong electrical discharge into Jason's body. As he shook from the jolt, he grabbed a hold of Stubbs and the current passed through him into Stubbs, turning him into a charred corpse. Freddy Krueger decided to take measure at this time. Taking advantage of highly intoxicated stoner, Bill Freeburg, Freddy took possession of his body and procured two needles filled with an extremely powerful tranquilizer. He waited in a corridor for Jason to come after him. When Voorhees approached, Krueger/Freeburg stabbed both needles into his neck. Before the tranquilizer could take effect, Jason cut Freeburg in half at the waste with one strong swing of his machete. The tranquilizer ran through his system and Jason collapsed to the floor. He began to dream, and thus became vulnerable to Krueger's manipulations. Freddy first took the form of Jason's late beloved mother, Pamela Voorhees. As Mrs. Voorhees, he berated Jason for his perceived failures, calling him a big stupid dog that can't stop eating even though his master said that he has had enough. Morphing back into Krueger, he jumped down from a catwalk and attacked Jason. Jason fought back, but quickly came to realize that in the dream world, he was facing up against an unstoppable foe. He cut off Freddy's arms, but they instantly grew back. Freddy executed hit and run tactics against Jason, using his dream power to knock the killer all around the boiler room as if he were a pinball in a giant arcade game. He even dropped a large steel boiler drum down upon him, crushing Jason into the ground. Jason got up and Freddy slashed into some water pipes, creating a waterfall that cascaded down between them. Jason lurched towards Freddy, but stopped at the waterfall, refusing to pass through it. Freddy mused about how there was something Jason was afraid of after all. Freddy took advantage of Jason's hesitation. He changed the landscape so that Jason appeared to him as a child wearing a hockey mask. Prying it back, he scoffed at Jason's facial deformity, citing that he had a face that only a mother could love. Piercing the side of the child's head with a single claw, he decided to go a little deeper into Jason's dreamscape. Jason's dream became a re-imagining of the events that led him to drown back in 1957. Lori Campbell (who had tranquilized herself as part of a plan to enter the dream world and pull Freddy out of it), appeared and tried to help Jason. She watched as a group of cruel children tormented Jason, pushing him into the lake. Lori reached down to help him, but Freddy appeared and pulled him back down under. As all of this was going on, strange things were taking place in the real world as well. Will, Lori, Kia and Charlie had decided to bring Jason back to Camp Crystal Lake. Their plan was to have Lori go to sleep and pull Freddy out of her dream when Jason woke up, in the hopes that the two monsters would kill each other. By bringing Jason back home, they believed that he would remain there and not follow them back to Springwood. At the point in Jason's dream when he began drowning, his physical body in the real world began suffering similar effects. He went into a seizure and began coughing up water. He suddenly awakened and sat bolt upright, which spooked Charlie Linderman, causing him to accidentally fire a gun that he had been carrying. The shot went through the windshield of the van they were in, which caused Will Rollins to veer off the road. The back doors flew open and Jason's body sailed out into the woods as the van overturned. As it turned out, they had just reached the entrance to Camp Crystal Lake when the vehicle went off the road. The teens scrambled to get away and Jason followed them to one of the cabins. He burst inside and knocked over a gas can, which immediately started a fire. He first went after Will, who was desperately trying to get Lori to wake up. He swung his machete down, catching him along the back, but Will managed to avoid most of the force of it. Swinging again, Jason's machete got caught in a wooden table. While he was trying to liberate it, Kia Watson began beating him across the back with a pool cue. He backhanded her across the room, at which point, Charlie Linderman came rushing at him with a flag pole, stabbing him in the chest. He repulsed Linderman as well, whose body slammed into a wall, impaling himself on a metal bracket. When icons clash Lori suddenly woke up and had managed to pull Freddy Krueger into the real world. They were in a cabin at Camp Crystal Lake and Jason Voorhees was there, anxiously awaiting to begin round two. Jason had the immediate upper-hand in this fight and smacked Freddy across the room. Grabbing him, he smashed his head through a window and then dragged his body through the remaining window panes. He pulled him outside and effortlessly flung him across the campground. Jason stomped off after Freddy, casually dispatching Kia Waterson along the way. Freddy leaped at him, stabbing him multiple times in the back and chest with his claws. Freddy was fast and very dexterous, but he was not a match for Jason's size and strength. Jason pushed him back and Freddy landed near a pile of oxygen tanks. Using his claws, he cut off the valves on the tanks, turning them into veritable torpedoes that began shooting in Jason's direction. One rocketed right into his chest, pushing him back towards an area that was under construction. Freddy appeared at the top of a construction workers' scaffolding and let loose a pile of metal rods, which rained down, spiking Jason through the leg and chest. He then sent a cement mixer down, which rebounded off Jason's stunned body. Unfortunately for Freddy, the ricocheting cement bin also knocked Freddy down from his perch and he became entangled in some of the machine's cables. Jason pulled him down and they began trading blows again. A mining car became dislodged during the chaos and came down the ramp, knocking into both of them. Lori found a gas hose hooked up to a generator, and began spraying the dock with fuel. Freddy sliced off Jason's fingers and then caught his machete and began hacking at Jason with his own weapon. Once he got Jason down on the ground, he stabbed him through the eye holes of his mask with his claws. By this point, Lori was storming down the dock with two flaming pieces of wood in her arms. She screamed for Freddy to "Go to Hell!" and set the dock to the torch. As the flames raced down the dock, Jason took advantage of Freddy's surprise and punched his fist through his back with his fingerless hand. He then ripped off Freddy's claw arm. Krueger then plunged the machete into Jason's heart. The fire reached some nearby propane tanks, which exploded, destroying the entire dock. Freddy and Jason's flaming bodies rocketed across the lake. An injured and exhausted Krueger managed to make his way back and climbed onto the dock. Still holding onto Jason's machete, he slowly strode towards Lori and Will. Jason emerged from the lake and impaled Freddy from behind with his own severed claw-arm. This had taken the last bit of Jason's strength and he collapsed back into the lake. Freddy dropped the machete and fell to his knees. Lori picked up the weapon and cut Freddy's head off. Sometime later, Jason revived and found Freddy's head. He marched with it back to the shoreline. Freddy vs. Jason (2003) Uber-Jason Remake Series | aliases = Jason | franchise = | image = | notability = Main character | type = Serial killer | gender = Male | base of operations = Camp Crystal Lake | known relatives = Pamela Voorhees (mother; deceased) | status = Alive | born = 1969 | died = | 1st appearance = Friday the 13th (2009) | final appearance = | actor = Derek Mears Caleb Guss }} Jason Voorhees is the physically deformed son of Pamela Voorhees. In 1980, when Jason was still a child, he witnessed his mother, Pamela Voorhees being beheaded by a camp counselor on the shore of Crystal Lake. His mother believed that Jason had drowned in the lake and blamed the counselors at Camp Crystal Lake for his apparent demise. Approaching the corpse, he gathered up his mother's locket, which contained a photograph of her. In his mind, he could hear his mother's disembodied voice urging him to take revenge against those who wronged them. Thirty years later, Jason was still living in the Voorhees family home in the middle of the woods. The interior of the house had fallen into severe disrepair and Jason primarily occupied the network of tunnels and mine shafts that ran beneath the house and the rest of the campground. In order to disguise his facial disfigurement, Jason took to wearing a burlap sack over his head. Few people knew of his existence and those that did, regarded him as little more than an urban legend. Some of the locals who knew who he was felt that he was somebody who just wanted to be left alone. Jason rarely left the environs of the campground, but occasionally he would venture over to the neighboring farm to steal kerosene and other supplies. In the Spring of 2009, Jason had discovered several people who had been encroaching upon his territory. Armed with a machete, he began slaughtering them one by one. His first victim was a young man named Wade who had come to Crystal Lake in search of a wild field of marijuana. He then killed Wade's friend Amanda whom he locked inside a sleeping bag and set on fire. Returning to his house, he discovered two trespassers named Whitney and Mike. Attacking from the cellar, he stabbed Mike multiple times, but Whitney managed to run off. While chasing her, he came upon another boy named Richie. He killed Richie by cleaving his head with the machete. He was then able to catch up to Whitney. Rather than kill her however, Jason instead took her prisoner. It is unclear why he did this, but it could have something to do with the notion that Whitney bore a strong resemblance to his mother. Jason took Whitney back to the tunnels beneath his house and chained her in a dungeon. Six weeks later, Jason returned to the farmland where he often stole kerosene from and was discovered by a pot-smoking farmhand named Donnie. Jason attacked him, but Donnie managed to tear his hood off. Jason decapitated Donnie then found an old hockey mask lying amongst the debris in the barn. He replaced his torn sack with the hockey mask and went on to find fresh new victims. He went down to Crystal Lake where he witnessed a boy named Nolan driving a boat. Trailing behind him was Nolan's girlfriend, Chelsea, who was wake boarding. Armed with a bow and arrow, Jason fired an arrow into Nolan's head. Chelsea saw Jason standing on the shore of the lake and tried to hide beneath a dock. Jason walked across the dock and stabbed his machete downward through the planks, piercing Chelsea's skull. As night time approached, Jason went to a summer home located on the other side of the lake. Inside a massive work shed, he found an inebriated young man named Chewie. He killed Chewie by stabbing him in the neck with a screwdriver. Chewie's friend Lawrence came out to see what was the matter and Jason and he fought with one another. Lawrence managed to stab Jason in the leg and took off running. Picking up an axe, Jason hurled it through the air, striking Lawrence in the back. Turning him over, he slammed him down on a wood pile, forcing the axe blade deeper into his body until it came out the other side of his chest. He then went to the main house and sneaked into an upstairs window. He found a woman named Bree and impaled her on a pair of deer antlers mounted on a wall. By this point, the other occupants of the house were aware of Jason's presence and alerted the police. Police officer Bracke came to the house and Jason speared him through the eye with a fire poker. The owner of the house, Trent Sutton, tried to escape by fleeing down a road and hailing a passing tow truck. Jason caught up with him and stabbed Trent through the back with his machete. He then impaled him on a row of spikes on the back of the truck just before it drove off. Jason returned to his home where he found two more people, Clay Miller and a woman named Jenna exploring the tunnels beneath his house. Clay was Whitney's brother and he had spent the last six weeks searching for her. Clay managed to find Whitney and free her, and the three tried to escape from the tunnels. Jason caught up to them and managed to kill Jenna, but Clay and Whitney succeeded in climbing through a hatch that led outside. Jason followed them back to the barn where he had killed Donnie hours earlier. He burst through a glass window and grabbed Clay and the two began grappling with one another. Jason likely would have ended him right there, but Whitney distracted Jason by holding up a cameo containing a picture of Jason's mother. While Jason remained fixated on Whitney, Clay attacked him from behind with an open bear trap. Together, Clay and Whitney managed to rope a length of chain around Jason's neck. The other end of the chain was fed through a wood-chipper, which tightened the chain, ultimately breaking Jason's neck. Just to be certain though, Whitney took up Jason's own machete, shouted "Say hi to Mommy for me... in Hell!" and ran him through. Clay and Whitney then took Jason's body and dumped it in the lake. As the sun rose over the lake, they breathed a sigh of relief confident that the nightmare was finally over. Without warning, Jason burst up through the boards of the dock for one final attack. Creation The character of Jason Voorhees was developed by screenwriter Victor Miller. Miller originally wanted to name the character Joshua after his son, but studio executives disliked the name. Instead, Miller combined Josh with the name of his first son, Ian, and came up with Jason. In this, it could be argued that Miller was literally the father of Jason Voorhees. Miller chose his infamous killer's surname from a girl that he once dated named Van Voorhees. Miller felt that the name had a naturally ominous feel to it and believed it would be appropriate for Jason as well as his psychotic mother Mrs. Voorhees. Miller never envisioned the character beyond the scope of the first film and in his opinion, Jason Voorhees drowned in 1957 and never rose from the dead. It was Ron Kurz who developed the idea of making Jason physically deformed. Kurz also wrote the climax scene from Friday the 13th where the monstrous image of Jason springs out of Crystal Lake to attack Alice Hardy. Special effects and makeup artist Tom Savini was the man responsible for crafting the design and prosthetics used to transform fourteen-year-old Ari Lehman into the hideous Jason Voorhees seen at the end of the film. Making Friday the 13th: The Legend of Camp BloodHis Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th The Men Behind the Mask As there are supernatural and demonic things involved with Jason, it is not known if Jason really even had a character and personality anymore save for that of a mute stalking murder. However, it did seem that he must have had some residue of his humanity left in him thought it being that of a child. The only thing that was ever heard from him was the infamous "Kill!, Kill!, Kill!, Die!, Die!, Die!", when he approached his victims, but it didn't sound natural. He was also known to grunt when injured heavily.34 He revered his mother as she was the only person that showed him true love in his childhood. After her death, he constructed a crude altar in the shack where he lived with his mother's head at the center to which he placed his victims at the foot of it, as though it were a human sacrifice, demonstrating that he had some beliefs.2 Ginny Field, knowing the story of him and his mother used the child persona thing against him to trap him in order to kill him to protect herself from further harm.2 Tommy Jarvis as a child also used the child persona thing against him by making himself look like Jason did as a child, in order to trap him like Ginny had once did to save his sister.4 Both attempts to use the child persona thing against him were successful. In his original appearance, Jason was scripted as a mentally disabled young boy.57 Since Friday the 13th, Jason Voorhees has been depicted as a non-verbal, indestructible, machete-wielding mass murderer.9091 Jason is primarily portrayed as being completely silent throughout the film series. Exceptions to this include flashbacks of Jason as a child, and a brief scene in Jason Takes Manhattan where the character cries out "Mommy, please don't let me drown!" in a child's voice before being submerged in toxic waste, and in Jason Goes To Hell where his spirit possesses other individuals.57 Online magazine Salon's Andrew O'Hehir describes Jason as a "silent, expressionless ... blank slate."92 When discussing Jason psychologically, Sean S. Cunningham said, "... he doesn't have any personality. He's like a great white shark. You can't really defeat him. All you can hope for is to survive."93 Since Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, Jason has been a "virtually indestructible" being. Tom McLoughlin, the film's director, felt it was silly that Jason had previously been just another guy in a mask, who would kill people left and right, but get "beaten up and knocked down by the heroine at the end." McLoughlin wanted Jason to be more of a "formidable, unstoppable monster."25 In resurrecting Jason from the dead, McLoughlin also gave him the weakness of being rendered helpless if trapped beneath the waters of Crystal Lake; inspired by vampire lore, McLoughlin decided that Jason had in fact drowned as a child, and that returning him to his original resting place would immobilize him.94 This weakness would be presented again in The New Blood, and the idea that Jason had drowned as a child was taken up by director Rob Hedden as a plot element in Jason Takes Manhattan. 57 Many have given suggestions as Jason's motivation for killing. Ken Kirzinger refers to Jason as a "psychotic mama's boy gone horribly awry ... Very resilient. You can't kill him, but he feels pain, just not like everyone else."95 Kirzinger goes on to say that Jason is a "psycho-savant", and believes his actions are based on pleasing his mother, and not anything personal.79 Andrew O'Hehir has stated, "Coursing hormones act, of course, as smelling salts to prudish Jason, that ever-vigilant enforcer of William Bennett-style values."92 Todd Farmer, writer for Jason X, wrote the scene where Jason wakes from cryonic hibernation just as two of the teenagers are having sex. Farmer liked the idea that sex acts triggered Jason back to life.78 Whatever his motivations, Kane Hodder believes there is a limit to what he will do. According to Hodder, Jason might violently murder any person he comes across, but when Jason Takes Manhattan called for Hodder to kick the lead character's dog, Hodder refused, stating that, while Jason has no qualms against killing humans, he is not bad enough to hurt animals.96 Likewise, director Tom McLoughlin chose not to have Jason harm any of the children he encounters in Jason Lives, stating that Jason would not kill a child, out of a sympathy for the plight of children generated by his own death as a child.94 In an early draft of Freddy vs. Jason, it was decided that one of the villains needed a redeemable factor. Ronald D. Moore, co-writer of the first draft, explained that Jason was the easiest to make redeemable, because no one had previously ventured into the psychology surrounding the character. Moore saw the character as a "blank slate", and felt he was a character the audience could really root for.97 Another draft, penned by Mark Protosevich, followed Moore's idea of Jason having a redeemable quality. In the draft, Jason protects a pregnant teenager named Rachel Daniels. Protosevich explained, "It gets into this whole idea of there being two kinds of monsters. Freddy is a figure of actual pure evil and Jason is more like a figure of vengeance who punishes people he feels do not deserve to live. Ultimately, the two of them clash and Jason becomes an honorable monster."97 Writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, who wrote the final draft of the film, disagreed about making Jason a hero, although they drew comparisons between the fact that Freddy was a victimizer and Jason was a victim. They stated, "We did not want to make Jason any less scary. He's still a brutal killer ... We never wanted to put them in a situation where Jason is a hero ... They're both villains to be equally feared."97 Brenna O'Brien, co-founder of Fridaythe13thfilms.com, saw the character as having sympathetic qualities. She stated, "Jason was a deformed child who almost drowned and then spent the rest of his childhood growing up alone in the woods. He saw his mother get murdered by a camp counselor in the first Friday the 13th, and so now he exacts his revenge on anyone who returns to Camp Crystal Lake. Teenage fans can identify with that sense of rejection and isolation, which you can't really get from other killers like Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers."6 Jason stalked his victims cunningly, quietly, and sometimes grudgingly as with Tommy Jarvis6 and Tina Shepard at one point7 but not recklessly, and luring them in to their death. After killing his victims, he usually hid the bodies to prevent others from raising the alarm and to create more terror when his next intended victim would find it. If Jason had any virtues left, it would be that he never killed children under the age of thirteen6 or pets27 (The novel Hate-Kill-Repeat implied that he was responsible for the deaths of two children in a family, but the murders were never witnessed and they may have simply been unintentional collateral damage), and when he killed, it was always quick and their suffering was not long unless they struggled against him. Another possible virtue of Jason is shown when he saves Lori Campbell twice from becoming Freddy Krueger's victim after she saved him from getting killed by the dreamstalker himself; though it is not actually known if he saved her on purpose As Jason went through some characterization changes in the 2009 film, Derek Mears likens him more to a combination of John Rambo, Tarzan, and the Abominable Snowman from Looney Tunes. To him, this Jason is similar to Rambo because he sets up the other characters to fall into his traps. Like Rambo, he is more calculated because he feels that he has been wronged and he is fighting back; he is meant to be more sympathetic in this film.98 Fuller and Form contend that they did not want to make Jason too sympathetic to the audience. As Brad Fuller explains, "We do not want him to be sympathetic. Jason is not a comedic character, he is not sympathetic. He's a killing machine. Plain and simple."99 California State University's Media Psychology Lab surveyed 1,166 people Americans aged from 16 to 91 on the psychological appeal of movie monsters. Many of the characteristics associated with Jason Voorhees were appealing to the participants. In the survey, Jason was considered to be an "unstoppable killing machine." Participants were impressed by the "cornucopic feats of slicing and dicing a seemingly endless number of adolescents and the occasional adult." Out of the ten monsters used in the survey—which included vampires, Freddy Krueger, Frankenstein's monster, Michael Myers, Godzilla, Chucky, Hannibal Lecter, King Kong, and the Alien—Jason scored the highest in all the categories involving killing variables. Further characteristics that appealed to the participants included Jason's "immortality, his apparent enjoyment of killing and his superhuman strength Inconsistencies There are a number of inconsistencies and unanswered questions that arise in the Friday the 13th mythos with regards to Jason Voorhees. Mental handicap It is generally accepted that Jason is mentally slow, perhaps even retarded, owing largely to the fact that he does not speak. This idea was introduced in Friday the 13th Part 2 when Ginny Field, a child psychology major, presented the notion while having drinks with her lover Paul Holt and her friend Ted. Though Jason is clearly uneducated, there is nothing to suggest that he is mentally handicapped. In fact, his ability to survive in the wilderness for all those years undetected, plus the fact that he built a rudimentary cabin for himself, suggests that he is actually quite intelligent. Continuity When we first see the adult unmasked Jason Voorhees at the end of Friday the 13th Part 2, he has a wild mane of brown hair. However, a flashback scene from Friday the 13th Part III wherein Jason is seen attacking Chris Higgins, shows him completely bald. This flashback chronologically takes place prior to the events of Friday the 13th Part 2. Jason is also shown completely bald during his unmasking scene at the end of Part III, which is inconsistent given that the events of the film take place only a few days after the events from Part 2. The opening sequence from Part III also presents a continuity foible as it is radically different from the end of Part 2. In Part 2, Jason leaves his cabin to attack Paul and Ginny. He is shown with the machete still lodged in his shoulder from where Ginny had struck him earlier. In Part 3, Jason removes the machete from his shoulder while still inside his cabin. Parodies In the 1989 National Lampoon movie Christmas Vacation, Clark W. Griswold (Chevy Chase) pays homage to two famous horror slashers; Jason Voorhees and Leatherface. In a scene where he is cutting branches from his family Christmas tree, he dons a hockey mask and waves his chainsaw in a threatening manner to intimidate his neighbors. Powers and Abilities While initially simply very strong and hard to stop, after his resurrection in Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, Jason is restored to a virtually unstoppable state. As a result, he can sustain bullet and knife wounds and be virtually unaffected, possessing a healing factor that allows him to recover from particularly fatal injuries, although his flesh has still notably decayed when his face is seen without his mask. He has been incapacitated by chaining him to the bottom of a lake or impaling him through the head, suggesting that there are limits to his regenerative ability, but this is of limited use; when he was blown apart in Friday the 13th: Church of the Divine Psychopath/Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, his spirit survived and was able to possess others in an attempt to regain his body. Jason also has superhuman strength, that a human would not be able to achieve, it helps to go through the concrete, lift heavy furniture and crush people; on at least one occasion he crushed a man's skull with his bare hands, and was eventually able to free himself when he was pinned to the ground by a fallen tree, although he was still trapped by it for a time. His skin was very tough, that further protects him effectively from every kind of attack. In the sixth film, the shovel that hits his head was shattered to pieces upon merely touching him. Jason appears to be able to breathe underwater and often uses water to his advantage, typically by drowning his victims. When he is subjected to a regenerative nanotechnology process in Jason X and transformed into a cyborg, Jason becomes even stronger; his strength is enhanced to the point where he can punch through solid steel, he is completely bulletproof, and can survive in the vacuum of space unaided. In addition to his various superhuman abilities, Jason has shown to be skilled in the use of various weapons, both melee and ranged. Even the simplest of tools can become a deadly weapon when in Jason's hands, ranging from an ice pick (Part 2) to a simple heated rock (Jason Takes Manhattan). Jason is also highly intelligent and a master of stealth, being able to set up different booby traps. On numerous occasions, Jason often stalks an entire group of people at once. On these occasions, he easily avoids detection, and picks off the group members one by one without anyone else noticing. Jason Voorhees Immortality(03:36) 930 views Jason's Powers The Immortal SeleneAdded by The Immortal Selene Natural Abilities Super Durability: Jason is extremely hard to kill, able to withstand injuries such as stab wounds, bullet wounds, fire (to an extent), etc. Super Strength: He also has super strength, as he can lift people up above the ground, crush their heads, or smash through walls--similar to Michael Myers. Pain Suppression: Jason is shown to resist physical pain, such as getting his hand cut, his leg stabbed or getting hit in the head with an axe. Stealth Tactics: Jason's killing style mostly relies on stealth to get to his victims without anyone realizing he's there; he was able to stalk and hunt down Sgt. Brodski's grunt team. Machete Proficiency: Jason's most signature weapon is his machete which he uses to stealth take downs, slice, stab and slashing methods. Feral Mind: By being consumed by rage over the death of his mother, Jason will kill anybody who enters Camp Crystal Lake excluding children and pregnant women. Enhanced Tracking: Jason can track people down at great distances whenever they're out on a ship, in a police station or a diner. Enhanced Marksman: Jason can throw objects at great distances, such as throwing a machete on fire through a cornfield. Speed Swimming: Despite the fact he couldn't swim when he was a kid, but when he was full grown, Jason was able to catch people quicker when they're on a boat in the lake at a distance. Escape Intuition: Jason can break through binds and fetters, and able to escape any captivity such as getting caught by the government. Supernatural Powers Resurrection: If he is defeated, he can be resurrected always, when he resurrected becomes more powerful. Immortality Enhanced Strength: Upon being resurrected, Jason's strength has increased to the point he can rip a man's heart out with his bare hands. Regenerative Durability: Upon being resurrected, Jason can endure far more damage and heal from whatever injury he receives, such as getting impaled by his own machete and recovered from it. Bullet Immunity: Jason is completely immune to bullets, he was brought down by a shotgun but still kept getting up. Pain Immunity: In his undead state, Jason's pain receptors were disable to the point he's completely immune to physical pain. Invulnerability: In his undead state, Jason is completely immune to any physical damage he receives. Supernatural Survivability: Jason can survive any situation due to being resurrected, such as being set on fire, electrocution and getting blown up. Undying: Once he is powerful enough he is nearly impossible to kill. Hypnotizing Heart: If he is blown to bits, his heart can hypnotize them into eating it. Possession: Upon eating the heart, the person will be possessed by his soul and still maintaining his abilities, he can only reborn through another Voorhees, he can possess other people through oral contact leaving the former host to gruesomely melt away. He seems to lose this ability once he is killed by his niece, Jessica Kimble, when she stabbed him in the heart with a special dagger and he was dragged to Hell (as in Jason X, having his head blown off by Kay Em apparently killed him). Parasite Physiology: If the host he possess is somehow killed, like severing the throat, Jason will take the appearance of parasite-like being and picks his next living target. Teleportation: It's unknown on how he got it, Jason seems to teleport to get to his victims, it was shown when a man was climbing up a ladder but Jason was, instantly on the ladder, able to thrown him off. Oxygen Independence: Because of being resurrect, Jason can survive without the need for oxygen. This power does have its limits, however, because Freddy Krueger was able to nearly drown him in the dream world. Bionic Powers Bionic Physiology:In Jason X, when his head, arm and leg was destroyed, his body was rebuilt into the cybernetic Über-Jason by a regenerative nanotechnology process. Body Modification & Limb Replacement:Due to being rebuilt, Jason's body was modified into a cyborg and had his right replaced with a cybernetic arm. Space Survivability:Due to being rebuilt, Jason was able to survive the vacuum of space. vidoe game only powers in Friday_the_13th_(NES_video_game) he some how had the power to raze an army of mindless zombies even animating the flying head of Pamela Voorhees. he also appears to control an army of man-eating wolves and blood sucking bats thaw it can't be said for shere if there intinchinaly helping him or just animal look of a meal. thaw nither the moves or novals ever mention him being abil to raise the dead its not implosiblehas he is basicly a zombie him self why couldnt what ever it is that animates him spreads to others Weaknesses and vulnerabilities Despite his great power, Jason does have a few notable weaknesses: Despite having used water to his advantage on several occasions and regularly swimming since his resurrection, Jason does appear to be afraid of water to some extent, which Freddy used to his advantage to nearly drown him in Freddy vs Jason. If trapped under the waters of Crystal Lake by any means, such as chains, Jason will be immobilized and unable to escape without outside help. His mother as evident in Friday the 13th Part 2 and Freddy vs Jason. When he hears his mother or sees her he stops what he is doing and pays attention to what she tells him. Obviously, the films were produced by airline companies which in the 80's wanted to see that no camping or car drive were appropriate for making a good vacation. Am zis! Vlad Theodorescu 1973. Body Count Original Series Incomplete Remake Series See also External Links * * Jason Voorhees at Wikipedia * Jason Voorhees at Horrorpedia * Jason Voorhees at the Villains Wiki * Jason Voorhees at the Friday the 13th Wiki References ---- Category:Articles Category:Characters Category:Film characters Category:Friday the 13th (1980)/Characters Category:Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)/Characters Category:Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)/Characters Category:Reanimated Corpses Category:1946 character births Category:1984 character deaths Category:2455 character deaths Category:Undead Characters Category:Zombies Category:Freddy vs. Jason (2003)/Characters